A week away and a mucky weekend

That was a lovely week away, under canvass (we only had 1 really bad night of rain), and the niece and nephew survived both the camping and the sailing. They were boasting of how many times they managed to capsize their boats each day. We also decided to have a photo competition, where you gained points for getting photographs in various categories (the ones I can remember are yellow shoes, spotty animals, people in kilts, poodles, funny signs, old cars, weird shaped clouds, red tractors, plants growing out of buildings, socks and sandles, wigs, belted galloway cattle and your name). It was fun and we got some cracking odd photos. We saw a lot of waterfalls and the waterways and lochs in Scotland are definitely in ‘spate’ (full flood). And we went out scrumping and collected some blackberries to make apple and blackberry pudding. Everyone seemed to enjoy the break and the niece and nephew want to go back sometime. Here’s a few photos …

Loch Doon Castle…

Loch Ken (where we were based) …

Loch Ken sunset …

Oh it’s nice to be back and seeing what has happened in the week away. The big story for me is that I went to the allotment on Saturday night coming home from Northampton and discovered that a nice friendly farmer had visited my allotment and left me a little present. Well maybe not so a little …

So on Sunday I had a really big job to do (sorry about the puns). Carol and I had gone halves on some manure and so I thought I would move it. At least I hope it was Carol’s and my delivery.

So on Sunday morning I headed off to the allotment to do some work. The weeds had gained a little hold so I had a good job in hand to get rid of them, lots of weeding and digging. While digging out the weeds I had a bit of a clear out. I got rid of the last few straggly pea plants as there was next to nothing on them and it was getting to the point of diminishing returns. I also took out the French beans as they too were barely cropping. After a whole weeks being left alone they only had 1 serving on, and very few small pods, so I bit the bullet and took them out.

I also dug up the onions and they are now in the greenhouse drying. I know it sounds odd but they fit in the shelves perfectly, look…

The greenhouse also has lots of chillies growing as well, the crop looks to be incredible.

but I am getting ahead of myself. Back on the allotment the spinach had been overgrown and failed, the late peas had disappeared, so I had to dig them out too. It was quite depressing. There are lots of bare brown patches on the plot which looks depressingly empty but there is still a lot of cropping plants going.

The runner beans are going great, with lots being ready and lots already picked, some of them were far too stringy and had definitely gone over, so they have gone straight into the compost bucket. The sweetcorn has produced about 60 ears of corn so far and there are still a lot on there but they are probably a week or so off being ripe. It’s been a really good year for sweetcorn from the MK plot. We’ve had it on the cob, off the cob and I have frozen an absolute bucketload of it. My prediction of having my own body weight in sweetcorn is not too far off.

The pumpkins look good, the courgettes are still producing, albeit at a vastly reduced speed (hoorah!). The butternut squash are now doing well, there are a few that are massive and just need to ripen. The red cabbage and the kale are still doing great things. The carrots are amazing. The beetroot is being used slowly as well, and there are leeks, swede, turnips and parsnips all coming along for the winter.

The raspberries are fabulous, a second crop of them and MK is a happy man. So I did the picking and got everything ready for tonight.

Now by the time this had all been done, no-one else had turned up on the allotment (lazy beggars, all of them) so I couldn’t confirm with anyone that it was my manure, so I went along the lines of “as it’s blocking the way to my greenhouse and partially on my allotment I’ll have half of it”. I’m assuming that it’s the stuff that Carol and I wanted. If it’s not then I’ll plead ignorance (easily done I know) and order some more for them. For the connoisseur of manure, it’s cow. Anyway, I barrowed a lot to the middle of the plot and all is well.

It’s next to my late potatoes that are coming through as well…

So it’s not all bad news. And the freezer does have a lot of veg in it. But now it’s time for dinner so night all, and good gardening when you can get to it.

Good blog Mk and great shots, I like Scotland but not under canvass, much prefer a lodge or even a caravan, I like the idea of the silly photo's though I bet a lot of fun was had with that idea, it's one I may adopt on our next holiday.